The ease at which valuable digital content (e.g., music, games, video, pictures, and books) can be copied and shared is worrisome to content owners. It is critical that content owners are fairly reimbursed. Because of this, it is a requirement that content distributors implement secure measures that help prevent piracy. Digital-Rights Management (DRM) is a popular phrase used to describe such protection of rights and the management of rules related to accessing and processing digital items. Content owners hope to protect their valuable digital content using a DRM system that is implemented by secure, tamper-resistant electronic devices.
One method of DRM protection allows content sharing among a domain of devices. Such a domain of devices, may for example share the same payment method/account information (e.g., share the same credit card number, account number, . . . , etc.), as well as sharing access to digital works. For example, a user may pay to access a certain digital work (e.g., a movie) a single time. Since all devices that are part of a domain share account information, any device may access the digital work. However, after any device accesses the work, all other devices will be prevented from accessing the work. Similarly, a user may choose to pay each time a digital work is accessed. Accessing the digital work by any device within the domain will cause the user's account to be charged accordingly.
While such a DRM system enables a user-friendly method for content sharing, such a system presents two problems. The first problem is that a user faces the potentially cumbersome task of registering all of his devices into a domain. The second problem is that the security of content in a domain is potentially threatened if users can remotely register devices into a domain over a long distance. Therefore a need exists for domain-based digital-rights management with easy and secure device enrollment that increases the security of content.